Aldi Stores Limited, which operates over 500 supermarkets across the UK and Ireland, has selected Vacancy Filler Recruitment Software to assist with its UK recruitment, in order to underpin the continued expansion of the group.

Vacancy Filler, in conjunction with Aldi, has implemented its Applicant Tracking System using Vacancy Filler’s cloud-based technology to help process the over 220,000 job applications Aldi receives each year. More than 70 new stores will have been opened in 2015 and Aldi is looking to hire more than 6,000 staff this year. Moving to a standardised central approach to recruitment is an important step to ensure that Aldi can meet its ever-growing requirements.

Unlike many organisations which have a central recruitment function, Aldi will continue to delegate the hiring responsibility to the area managers and senior management team and, in addition, will use intelligent Screening Questions and Situational Judgement Testing modules to filter out unsuitable applicants before a candidate is invited to complete an application form. After screening, the candidate is automatically routed to the Hiring Manager where the candidate will step through each stage of the process prior to hire.

Vacancy Filler was chosen for its ease of use and the ability to hold the key competencies against each role that guides the shortlisting process in order for the Hiring Manager to score the candidates accordingly, ensuring a uniform process.

Ruth Doyle, Regional Managing Director at Aldi Stores UK said “The Vacancy Filler system is improving the quality and frequency of candidate engagement and provides us with a consistent and repeatable process across all of our eight UK regions. It will also deliver valuable management information to support our expansion programme.”

She added, “We have been able to take a more holistic approach to our recruitment which now allows us to forward-plan our people requirements more effectively for the next 12 months. This highlights any action we need to take to fulfil those requirements.”